Introduction to Psychoanalysis

Chapter 12 Explicit and Implicit (1)
Gentlemen, our earlier study of faults has not been in vain.In the study of negligence we have drawn two conclusions from the known hypotheses: one concerning the elements of dreams, and the other concerning the art of dream-interpretation.The dream element itself does not constitute an important thing or original thought, it is a substitute for something that the dreamer is not aware of, like an underlying tendency behind a fault, the dreamer does not remember something or something even though he is sure of it .Dreams are constructed from this series of elements, so if one element of the dream is true, then the dream as a whole must also be true.Our method is to use these elements to induce free association, so that other substitute ideas come into consciousness, and from these ideas, we can infer the underlying original thought.

Now, I'm going to revise the noun to make it more scientific.The words "hidden", "unreachable" or "original" should be changed to the more precise terms "unreached by the dreamer's conscious mind" or "subconscious".The "subconscious mind" mentioned here has the same meaning as the intention behind the forgotten words and mistakes, that is, "belonging to the subconscious mind at that time".On the contrary, the dream elements themselves and the substitute ideas acquired by association can be called conscious, and there is no theoretical prejudice in these terms; who can say that the term "unconscious" is not a suitable and understandable term?
Now, if we extend our insight from a single element to the dream as a whole, then the dream is replaced by something or things in the subconscious, and dream interpretation consists in eliciting these underlying thoughts.Therefore, there are three important rules in dream interpretation, which we must follow one by one:

One, regardless of whether the apparent meaning of the dream is plausible or absurd, whether it is clear or vague; these are definitely not the underlying thoughts we are looking for.This rule has an obvious limitation, which will be described in detail later.

Secondly, it should be our business to call up substitute ideas at any time, without considering whether they are appropriate or not, or whether they are too distant from the dream-element.

Third, we must be patient and wait for the hidden underlying thought we seek to emerge, as in the forgotten word "Monaco" in the experiment above.

We now realize that with regard to dreams it does not matter how much we remember or whether we remember them correctly.The remembered dream is not reality, but a substitute in disguise. It only provides some guidance to evoke other substitute ideas, guides us to discover the original thought, and thus introduces the subconscious thought hidden in the dream into consciousness. middle.Although our memory is not so accurate, it is just dressing up the substitute again, and this dressing up has no motive in itself.

When we interpret our own dreams, we can also interpret the dreams of others; our own dreams are more rewarding and more convincing to ourselves.However, if experiments are carried out on this aspect, there will also be resistance.Although associations can be endless, we have to be critical and selective about them, not fully acknowledging them.Some associations are inappropriate or irrelevant, others are ridiculous, and still others are off topic.We then find so many protests that the association is suppressed before it is even clear, and will eventually disappear.Because on the one hand we tend to fall into obsession with the original idea, that is, the element of the dream; on the other hand, we use critical selection to destroy the results formed by free association.If it is not us who interpret these associations, but someone else replaces them, then the critical choices of others also have other motives, and it is useless to try to prevent them.Sometimes we are reluctant to share an association because it is not a pleasant one.

These protests are clearly a threat to the conduct of our research.When we interpret our own dreams, we should try our best to avoid their interference; when interpreting dreams for others, we must establish strict rules so that he cannot stop any association under any circumstances, even if the above-mentioned is too trivial, too absurd, and too senseless. The same goes for reasons such as relationships or being too unhappy.Although he promised to follow the rules, he still inevitably violated the rules, which made us very nervous.At first we thought that the testee still didn't believe in the effect of free association despite our repeated declarations; we might let him read a few books and send him to a lecture, and he would be convinced of our point of view.These practices are necessary, because even we who believe deeply in this doctrine cannot avoid objection to an association, and it takes a lot of thinking to overcome it.

In this way, we don't have to feel upset because of the stubbornness of the dreamer, but can use these experiences to discover some brand new facts.The more unexpected these facts are, the greater their importance.We have learned that the resistance to the study of dream-interpretation stems from a resistance.This resistance expresses an opposing position in a critical way, and it has no connection with the theoretical beliefs of the dreamer.Experience has shown that such critical objections can never be justified.Those associations that are suppressed by people are without exception the most important clues that help to discover subconscious thoughts.We must therefore pay special attention to those associations which accompany objections.

This resistance is an entirely new fact, a phenomenon deduced from our hypothesis.Our research may be more difficult because of this new element to deal with, which makes us both surprised and unhappy. If we had known this, it would be better to give up than to be happy.Researching this kind of problem that has nothing to do with the goal has caused a lot of troubles and hindered the smooth application of dream interpretation. Why?But on the other hand, these difficulties are also quite fascinating, and perhaps the research from which we can deduce this kind of trouble is also extremely valuable.If we try to analyze dream elements or their substitutes for hidden unconscious thoughts, we are inevitably hindered by resistance.Therefore, it can be concluded that there is a very important idea hidden behind the substitute, otherwise why is it so difficult to seek the source?If a child does not dare to show others what is in his hand, we can conclude that it must not be owned by him.

If we use the concept of dynamics to analyze this resistance, we must keep in mind that there is quantitative change in resistance.It's big and small, and we see that kind of difference all the time in research.There is another experience in interpreting dreams, which can be described here.That is to say, occasionally there is only one or a few associations, so that it is enough to detect the subconscious mind behind it through the elements of the dream; sometimes it is necessary to have a long series of associations and overcome the resistance of many criticisms.Perhaps we can think that the number of associations will vary with the size of the resistance. This conjecture is not bad.Weak resistance means that the distance between the substitute and the subconscious mind must be relatively close; on the contrary, a strong resistance can cause the subconscious mind to fluctuate and change, so it has to go a long way from the substitute to the subconscious mind.

Now we can choose a dream to try out our technique and see if our expectations hold up.So how will we choose this dream?You do not understand the difficulties of choosing dreams, and it is not easy for you to understand what these difficulties are.It may be considered wise to start with certain dreams which, taken as a whole, are apparently less disguised.However, what is meant by the so-called "less disguised" dream?Are they intelligible, well-organized dreams, as in the two previous examples?We would be mistaken in assuming this, and the results of research show that it is these dreams that have more camouflage.Suppose we take any dream without setting any conditions, and you will probably be disappointed.As far as the association of the elements of a dream is concerned, what we have to observe and record may be extremely numerous, and it is not even possible to have a clear understanding of the whole research.If the dream is written down and compared with the associations it arouses, it can be found that the length of the recorded associations is several times that of the original dream.It seems most practicable, therefore, to select for analysis a few simple dreams, each of which at least expresses some insight or confirms one of our hypotheses.This is the method we shall adopt, unless experience compels us to select dreams with a little disguise.

But I also have a way to make it easy to simplify.Instead of interpreting complete dreams, we will concentrate on individual dream elements, giving a few examples, in order to see how our technique interprets them.

For example, a certain lady said that she dreamed many times in her childhood that God was wearing a paper hat with a peak.How would this dream be interpreted without the help of the dreamer?On the face of it, the dream was meaningless, but the lady said that as a little girl she often wore the mask at meals because she wanted to see if her siblings had more food on their plates than she did. Hat, and now the meaning of the dream becomes apparent.In this period of past facts, the hat obviously provides a shielding function, and the meaning of the dream is obvious.The interpretation of this element and of the complete dream is facilitated by the dreamer's reassociation.She tells us: "I know that God is omnipotent, so the meaning of this dream is that they are trying to hide it from me, but I am also omnipotent like God." Maybe this example is a little simple.

In the second case, a suspicious patient had a long dream in which someone spoke to her of my book on "Jokes" and praised it greatly.Then there was a waterway, and the word waterway and the words related to it were probably from another book, she couldn't remember, it was too vague.

(End of this chapter)